I noted recently the increase in ethnocentric beauty pageants. Guyana now has a Miss Guyana, a Miss African Guyanese, a Miss Amerindian Guyanese. And soon we will have a Miss Diwali.

In October 10, 2001 Stabroek News covered an awards ceremony organized by ACDA for Black children who did well at the CXC and GCE A'Level examinations. And Mr. Hoyte is calling for a "rescue" of Globe Trust after the previous management of that organization ran the company into the ground.

Mr. Hoyte's call has a clear ethnic slant since Globe Trust was formed by calls for Blacks in Guyana to invest in a Black owned bank, a clearly racist action in my opinion. Now Mr. Hoyte is calling for a bailout. I wonder if he would have done the same, had the owners of the bank been Indians.

And what penalties does he think should be meted out to the officers who mismanaged the bank?

But what is worrisome is the increased thrust being put on ethnicity. These separate pageants and the circumstances surrounding the formation of Globe Trust, the awards ceremony by ACDA, are not intended to be ethnically inclusive, but to divide, to separate, to set apart from the larger Guyanese society.

While it is a boost to individual self-confidence to see their own culture and ethnicity represented and respected, celebrated, I believe that going to the other extreme of separateness, does not bode well for Guyanese unity and nation building.

If we have six different ethnic pageants, six different ethno-centric banks, six different ethno-centric political parties, where would Guyana be as a nation?

We need to include all our people but not in separate worlds. They should all be included in the same Guyanese world.
ROHAN SOOKLALL